Update, Week 2: InfoLit course (EDT 110)

Tuesday in class, Cheryl and I tried something new.  In addition to our guest speaker, Becky Garvin from Project READ (our community partner), and introducing the concept of the Invisible Web and some advanced Google search techniques, we also assigned the students a team-building activity.  The students were put into teams (the teams they will be working with throughout the quarter on their research portfolios) to build a tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows.  After they built their towers, we discussed their group process and how they worked as teams.  We hope it will help foster a better group dynamic. Their homework is to find 3 web sites on the topic we are researching for the agency (fundraising trends for non-profit agencies).  I think they'll see a huge difference next week when they have to find 3 articles on the topic.  The web sites they find will be largely commercial - most of them have similar messages: "hire me as a consultant to help your non-profit raise money!" or "use our software and pay XX monthly to build your donor base." Stay tuned for updates on Week 3.